Host country Canada has decided to make maternal and child health a priority at this year’s G8 and G20 meetings, starting Friday June 25. Also on the list of priorities are food security and institutional reform in Africa. Here’s to hoping that Canada’s initiative leads to more effective global health policy among the world’s leading economies.
More information on the global health policies of Canada and other G8/G20 countries from the Kaiser Foundation.
Tag Archives: Maternal health
Vitamin A not the panacea it seemed?
Today’s NYTimes covered a study whose surprising results were recently published in The Lancet. It was conducted in Ghana, and seems to contradict a lot of good data on the positive results of Vitamin A supplementation: lower incidence of measles and diarrhea and, ultimately, reduced maternal and childhood mortality.
Writing in a Lancet commentary, Anthony Costello and David Osrin of the global health institute of University College London noted that the new study recruited an “astonishing” number of women — nearly 208,000 in more than 1,000 villages or family compounds. Half got a weekly low dose of vitamin A, and half got a placebo. Few in either group died, but the vitamin also did not reduce hospitalization for childbirth complications. Nor did it reduce stillbirths or deaths of newborns. Recent trials in Bangladesh and Indonesia had similar results.”
At this point, Vitamin A supplementation has practically become a truism in global health practice. What might be the consequences of this study, along with the trials in Bangladesh and Indonesia?
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/health/04glob.html
Minutes 4.22.2010
Global Health Interest Group
Organizational meeting minutes
Thursday April 22, 2010
In attendance: Megan Buresh, Jonathan Dyal, Mariam Fofana, Lakshmi Krishnan, Caitlin Martin, Elisabet Pujadas, Ani Ramesh, Megan Rybarczyk, Kerry Schnell, Sarah Wallace, Jessica Yang.
Summary of Discussion
Opening discussion: Maternal mortality
We discussed a recent study reporting global declines in maternal mortality. Some of the issues brought up included the fact that the global decline was due in large part to trends in large rapidly developing countries like India and China, while maternal mortality has been increasing in other countries. This is especially true of eastern and southern Africa, where HIV contributes to maternal mortality. We also discussed the importance of health metrics, health system strengthening and the burden of chronic disease in developing countries. Ani and John contributed some insight from their experiences in Bolivia.
Potential events for next year
- Photo exhibit/contest from summer experiences. We would have to solicit prizes and funding for food. This could be a great opportunity for recruitment of incoming 1st-years.
- World AIDS day fundraiser; we could do this in collaboration with the Urban Med-Peds interest group and split the proceeds between organizations in Baltimore and abroad.
- Generally speaking, we will try to focus on 1 or 2 big events per year that we can plan well ahead of time.
